AIR: No Kugelfang!

On sullen summer days, when rain falls and
clouds gloom over Long Island, the Army's Mitchel Field is a hive of
brown, earthbound pursuit planes. With their tails low, their tapered
fuselages and wings tilting toward the grey sky, the P-40s on the grass
and the paved tarmac look unnaturally still; they seem always to be
straining for release and flight.

To Mitchel's pursuit pilots, the air battles of World War II are very
real and very nearnearer than any civilian realizes. For Mitchel
Field is not simply a training base for the First Air Force but the
defensive center for...